If you think ping is a bigger problem than the server dying due to inactivity idk what to say.
I'm on rk1 whic has many times (about 4-5 times) higher poulation than rk3. "not overcrowded" . Jesus.. You only use a fraction of the playercity plots available to begin with. That says alot about the status of "your" dimension. Not even bot/money farmers are grabbing the cities because there is noone to sell money to!!
Wauv!!! 30 ppl.. 3 times a week.. awesome!!
Dude I've taken tours on rk3 and talked to some ppl. OA is more desolate on a sunday afternoon than rk1 tuesday 9 am gmt! Out of the few ppl I actually ran into all said the state of the server was just depressing and that they'd give alot to transfer to an active server.
I guess you're just different. Perhaps you could convince FC to let you run AO in a lan with your buddies? Since you seem uninterested in actually interacting with more than a bunch of ppl anyway.